170-year rivalry heats up as Kansas lawmakers try to wrest Super Bowl champion The Kansas City Chiefs are leaving Missouri, even though economists have long concluded that professional sports are subsidized not worth the money.
Top leaders in the Kansas Legislature have backed bailouts for the Chiefs and professional baseball’s Kansas City Royals. finance new stadiums in Kansas ahead of Tuesday’s special session. The plan calls for state bonds to build stadiums and pay them off with revenue from sports betting, the Kansas Lottery and additional tax revenue generated in and around new stadiums.
The state line runs through a metropolitan area of about 2.3 million people, and teams will only march about 25 miles (40 kilometers) west.
Decades of research have concluded that a professional sports franchise does not stimulate the local economy much, if at all, because it largely captures existing spending from other locations in the same community. But for Kansas officials, the spending will at least leave Missouri and go to Kansas, and Missouri’s dominance has its appeal.
“I’ve wanted to see chiefs in Kansas all my life, but I hope we can do it in a way that enriches these communities rather than putting an additional burden on them,” said state Rep. Jason Probst, a Democrat. from central Kansas.
The rivalry between Kansas and Missouri can be traced back to the lead-up to the Civil War, even before Kansas became a state. The Missouri people came from the east, hoping in vain to create another slave state like your own. Both sides looted, burned and killed on the other side of the border.
There was also a century-long athletic rivalry between the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri. And for years, the two states have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to lure businesses to one side of the border or the other in search of jobs. They called uneasy truce in 2019.
Missouri officials vow to be equally aggressive to retain the Royals and Chiefs, and not just because they view them as an economic asset.
“They are a source of great pride,” said Missouri Rep. John Patterson, a Republican from suburban Kansas City who is expected to become the next speaker of the state House of Representatives.
Kansas lawmakers see chiefs and royals in Game because voters side with Missouri refused in April extend the local sales tax to support its nearby stadiums. Lawmakers also argue that inaction could lead to one or both teams leaving the Kansas City area, although economists are skeptical about the reality of that threat.
Although the stadium lease runs through January 2031, Kansas officials say teams need to make decisions quickly to have new or renovated stadiums ready by then. They also promise the Chiefs a stadium with a dome or retractable roof that could host Super Bowls, college basketball’s Final Fours and huge indoor concerts.
“You have this asset and all the businesses that end up moving there or starting there,” said Kansas Rep. Shawn Tarwater, a Republican from his state’s outer suburb of Kansas City and a leader of the relocation effort. . “You will get trade from this area every day.”
About 60% of the region’s population lives in Missouri, but Kansas is growing faster.
Despite legislative pressure in Kansas, Missouri lawmakers have been slow to propose alternatives. Republican Missouri Gov. Mike Parson told reporters Thursday that his state will “not just flip,” but also said, “We’re only in the first quarter” of the contest.
Both states will hold primary elections on Aug. 3, with a majority of legislative seats on the ballot this year. Missouri’s April vote on a local stadium tax showed that subsidizing professional sports teams could be a political loser in the state, especially with a conservative electorate in the GOP primary.
“In Missouri, the Republican Party used to be run by a business wing that may have supported these kinds of things, but in the Trump era, that’s not the case,” said David Kimball of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, professor of political science. “The more conservative and more pro-Trump wing, they are not big proponents of spending taxpayer money on anything.”
Kansas Republicans are facing pressure from the right to avoid the state picking economic winners and losers. The problem, according to Probst, a Democrat, is using government to “make rich people richer,” meaning team owners.
Economists have studied professional sports teams and stadium subsidies since at least the 1980s. J.C. Bradbury, a professor of economics and finance at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, said research shows stadium subsidies are a “terrible channel for economic growth.”
While supporters of Kansas’ effort cited a report pointing to large positive economic impacts, Bradbury said “fake” messaging is a staple of stadium campaigns.
“Stadiums are a bad public investment, and I would say that’s pretty much the consensus,” said Bradbury, who has reviewed the studies and conducted them himself.
Still, more than 30 lobbyists have registered to press Kansas lawmakers for a stadium funding plan, and the CEO of the Kansas Chamber of Commerce called it a “unique opportunity” to engage executives.
The Chiefs have not only won three Super Bowl titles in five years, but they also have a particularly strong fan base, bolstered by tight end Travis Kelce. romance with a pop star Taylor Swift.
Host cities find the National Football League attractive because franchises are valued in the billions and wealthy owners and celebrity players are the focus of media attention, said Judith Grant Long, an assistant professor of sports management and urban planning at the University of Michigan and director of its center on sports platforms.
“It all comes together to make a potent drink for politicians, civic officials and local business interests who hope to benefit from its influence,” she said.